Warbird Information Exchange

Seeing the pics of the F4J airborne again got me to thinking about how much I enjoy seeing the early jets.

Back in the late 1970's, there was an F-84G painted in Thunderbirds markings based out at Mojave. I honestly don't know who it belonged to...any idea where that aircraft is today?

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

I don't ever remember a "G" model flying at any time in the late 70's. Are you sure it wasn't the swept-wing "F" model? There was one flying around in Thunderbird markings during that time. I can't remember the exact reasons why, but it was eventually grounded and sold. I believe it ended up at Pima, if my memory serves me correctly. I'm sure "JamesatTuscon" will pipe in here in fairly short order to correct me if I'm wrong.

I have a warbird magazine from late '70s/early '80s with a cover photo of the "F" in T-Bird paint. Not sure about a straight wing machine.

Scott

Sorry...just a late-night brain fart when I wrote it. I meant F-84F.

And yes, the aircraft was on the cover of Air Comix in the same issue that covered the 1979 Mojave Air Races...so it had to have been around September/October 1979.

_________________
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

That was/is F-84F 52-6969, which was registered as N84JW. I do not remember the entire story, but the ownership was never clear and in fact somewhat "shady". The airframe is now on display at Malmstrom AFB.



Pima's airplane is 52-6563 and has been at Pima since around 1976.

First in this scheme (sorry for the rotten picture, but I only had an Instamatic at the time!):



And later in this one:

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Had God intended for man to fly behind inline engines, Pratt & Whitney would have made them.

CB

http://www.angelfire.com/dc/jinxx1/Desrt_Wings.html

Somewhere in my archives, I have a couple of photos of that F-84F which I shot at Addison Airport, TX, in the early 1980s (using a little Kodak Instamatic camera that used 126 film and Flash Cubes! ). It was there at ADS for quite a while, as I recall, parked right by the perimeter fence along Addison Road on the east side of the field. I always wondered what became of that jet. It was very attractive in the T-Birds markings.

Cheers,

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Cliff is right. The F-84 is one of Pima's original planes. The T-bird paint job is a fake that I very much want to make go away now that we are painting our real Thunderbird F-4 in its team markings.

James

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info everyone.

So, was the reason that the Thunderbird F model was grounded due to an ownership dispute?

HHHmmm, sounds kind of familiar.